To Simply Be
by happilyinsane13
Summary: AIDA fic. Radames POV during Elaborate Lives and the morning after. Radames simply wants to be with Aida, and not have to have such an elaborate life. AidaRadames Please R & R! Rated T for suggestiveness.


Ok people. Once again I KNOW I should be working on one of my bigger stories, but I just HAD to write this. It suddenly came to me. I had the writers urge you know?

Disclaimer: I do not own the wonderful musical that is AIDA. I also don't own the lyrics or dialougue from AIDA, they belong to Elton John, Tm Rice, and the producers of Aida.

Also, if you're wondering the characters look like the OBC (Original Broadway Cast)

Also, this is from Radames POV. (Point of View)

I stared longingly at Aida as she approached me. She was obviously wondering why in Ra's name I was helping her people, especially by giving away all my stuff. I watched her as she finally stood in front of me.

Her slender figure looked so frail and powerful, and her skin was so beautiful as the light of day began to fade. Most of my people say that the Nubians skin is ugly and morbid, but I have to disagree.

Aida's skin is like roasted nuts that would seem to glow with light. I was snapped quickly out of my reverie as she spoke.

"Honestly Radames, I don't even know why you bothered to do this." She spat, as if she couldn't handle the thought that an Egyptian would ever help her people.

Those words stung me like a hoard of hornets. Did she really think me so low? Did she really think that I would just play around with her, like so many of the guards had with other Nubian woman? Like my father, who had betrayed my poor mother so many times after I was conceived?

"Don't you?" My voice had come out more choked and shaky then I had meant it to, for I could see the immediate guilt she felt at her words but quickly turned away from me. I knew my eyes had betrayed me. They had let her see my raw emotions.

I didn't want these emotions. I wanted these emotions. I tried to push them away, and then embraced them. I gave her with what I hoped was a penetrating yet gentle gaze, and took a step towards her.

"_We all lead such elaborate lives  
wild ambitions in our sights  
How an affair of the heart survives  
days apart and hurried nights_"

I poured my heart and soul into these words. I knew I could reach her. I wanted her, I **_needed_** her. Why was I feeling this way? I had only just met this woman, and yet she was already so beautiful to me.

"_Seems quite unbelievable to me  
I don't want to live like that  
seems quite unbelievable to me  
I don't want to love like that_"

It was true. I didn't want to live with only quick nights of love, and then days on end apart. I couldn't love or live in that fashion. I wanted to be with her every day, every moment of my life. Let Isis condemn me if I have gone against her will, but I have made no mistake.

"_I just want our time to be  
slower and gentler, wiser, free" _

I went to her, I tried to embrace her, but she resisted me, and quickly pulled away. She was fighting whatever feelings she had for me. Whether they were love or lust, I didn't know. I didn't really care. All I wanted was to love her and be with her.

"_We all live in extravagant times  
playing games we can't all win   
Unintended emotional crimes  
Take some out, take others in_"

I didn't mean to have these feelings for Aida, they just happened. I had only planned to avoid my marriage with Amneris as long as possible and travel. I wanted to discover new lands, and taste the exciting thrill of battle. I wasn't doing it for my people; I was doing it for my own selfish desires.

Aida was all I thought I was to be, what I should've been. She cared for her people above all else, casting her own feelings aside for their own happiness. I mentally winced, as I remembered. I had killed so many of her people. I simply thought of my own pleasure and ridiculous sense of excitement. Not even thinking of the lives I had taken, and being lost among my own men. Would she take me? A man so full of sin that he could simply drowned in it, if he let himself?

"_I'm so tired of all were going through  
I don't want to live like that   
I'm so tired of all were going through  
I don't want to love like that_"

I was tired of all this political circumstances. I was exhausted with having to know that I couldn't be with Aida because of a stupid arranged marriage to a woman that I loved no more then a sister, and the fact that we had different skin colors, races, country's, and gods. I just want to rest.

"_I just want to be with you  
Now and forever , peaceful, true_"

I just wanted to be with Aida. I had become entranced by her ever since she lifted that sword to my guard's neck. She was the image of who I had always wanted to be. I wanted to be with Aida forever, in peace. Somewhere where we didn't have to worry about anything. We could sail the Nile together, and settle on an island bordering are homelands. We wouldn't be in danger, we wouldn't have to hide from the rest of the world. We could simply be together.

"_This may not be the moment  
to tell you face to face  
But I could wait forever  
for the perfect time and place_"

I bowed before Aida and embraced her waist. I was begging her to love me, to be with me. I crumpled before her like a pathetic man. Love me, I thought. Please love me… I could feel herself giving in. She was embracing me. Lifting me up to her wondrous face. I looked into her deep brown eyes, and realized what they held. Passion and love, for me.

"_We all lead such elaborate lives  
We don't know whose words are true   
Strangers, lovers, husbands, wives  
Hard to know who's loving who_"

She joined me, for she agreed. We all lead elaborate lives. You never knew who loved who. I felt a twinge of guilt as I thought about it. Amneris didn't know that I, Radames, her betrothed was, as of now, having a passionate affair with her own personal handmaiden. Aida's hands felt like silk to me as she removed my tunic and touched me. Shivers of pleasure ran through my spine. I didn't know how much longer I could hold on. I then heard Aida's lovely voice soar.

"_Too many choices tear us apart  
I don't want to live like that_"

I didn't either, so I simply replied with what I knew was the answer.

"_Too many choices tear us apart  
I don't want to love like that  
I just want to touch your heart  
May this confession_"

As she writhed in uncontrollable passion in my arms I knew I wanted to touch Aida's heart, and leave of permanent mark there. I knew that the overwhelming feeling rising inside me was not lust, but an overpowering feeling of passion and feeling. I knew it was love. What else could it be?

"_Be the start_"

Our confessions of love to each other were the start of what I knew would hold a bittersweet end. But all thought of that quickly was dashed from my mind as we kissed passionately. Full of hunger and desire as we sank into the depths of the tent bed.

As I awoke, I looked at Aida's form, noticing her shiver a bit.

"Are you cold?" I asked, in simple worry for her. I honestly wasn't cold. I was still hot from last night. Oh, how it had been so…well, magical.

She glared at me playfully.

"You could've at least kept a blanket." She scorned, as she wrapped her arms tighter around me. I responded with the truth, for the truth was all I could give her.

"No. I could not. Man enters this world naked, without possessions. I want to  
be a new man for you, Aida. Cleansed of my past sins." I told her.

I wanted to be a new person for her. Someone she would always want to love and look up to for protection. A man who she could picture spending the rest of her life with. Suddenly the drums of my men sound. What news have they brought me? I couldn't let them hurt Aida. I just knew if she were caught unguarded, no matter how good she was with a sword, she would be no match for a guard who wanted to

'Have some fun'.

"My armies have returned. Pharaoh will expect a victory celebration. Go back  
to the palace. You'll be safe there." I told her quickly. I hurriedly put my shirt back on and was about to leave, then I remembered my amulet. No one would dare harm Aida, even if she was a Nubian slave with it on. It meant she was not only under my own protection, but the protection of the Pharaoh and the almighty gods.

"Wait, take my amulet. If anyone stops you, show them this and they'll let   
you pass."

I turned again to leave when I heard her whisper "I love you."

I couldn't believe it. She had admitted to loving me. Me, of all the people. I felt so elated. I wanted to hear those words again, and again. Over and over. I forgot myself and responded.

"I heard that. Say it again. I command you. I command..." I was interrupted from my sentence by a soldier calling out "Captain!" I sighed. I would have to hear those magical words another day. We all really lead elaborate lives. I wish I could escape mine and simply be with Aida. Just too simply be, is all I ask.

There you have it. My Aida fic. I REALLY hoped you liked it. Please R & R!


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